Bill of Rights

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 6:19 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

February 26 - 27, 2005

Who: Bill Maher.

When: 7 p.m. Saturday.

Where: House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.

Tickets: $32, $35, $42, $52.

Information: 632-7600.

Where Bill Maher feels at home might not be in your neighborhood.

The brazenly left-of-center host of the forum talk show "Real Time With Bill Maher" (which airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on HBO and repeats throughout the week) has been known to spark animated and freewheeling debate among supporters and detractors of his political opinions.

Maher hosted "Politically Incorrect" on ABC from 1993 through 2002, and Friday launched the second season of his hourlong HBO show. The loosely bridled format included a remote interview with veteran CBS News correspondent Lesley Stahl, and a three-man panel of Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.; former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, and Robin Williams.

That group was joined by Don Cheadle, nominated for an Academy Award for best actor for his role in "Hotel Rwanda."

A sample of the discussion from Williams, who interjected his thoughts on the Iraq elections: "And now begins the process of protecting the second part of the equation ... they have to write a constitution. I said, 'Take ours, we're not using it.' "

A comic at the core, Maher, 49, brings his stand-up act to the House of Blues on Saturday night. This week he was interviewed by the Las Vegas Sun from his office in Los Angeles.

Las Vegas Sun: Your opening-night had a lineup of Lesley Stahl, Robin Williams, Joe Biden, Tommy Thompson and Don Cheadle. Have you had a chance to evaluate that show? Did it work?

Bill Maher: Oh, yeah. I will say that Robin did a great job of giving his fans, all of us who are fans of Robin Williams, a one-man band who just riffs and is hysterically funny. He's in the moment, substantive, and it is a slim ridge to travel. But he can do it.

Sun: What about inviting Robin Williams into a forum with Joe Biden and Tommy Thompson? Isn't that a little combustible?

BM: We like combustible. The more combustible, the better. We want to be even more diverse than that. I love comedians and I don't think I'll ever be uncomfortable with that element. Tommy Thompson, we had on satellite last year and I think certain types of people are more comfortable being interviewed that way than being on a panel.

But (Thompson) is not that ideologically right-wing nut. It's just that when you're an insider, it's hard to speak freely. On our show sometimes we like it when the politicians don't show up because we can speak freely.

Sun: What would be your ideal panel of guests?

BM: Boy, I don't know. I'm friends with so many comedians. I don't want to make anyone mad ... but Robin Williams and any other two guests would be good.

Sun: You have said that, in terms of scandal, you found it remarkable that Republicans make so much out of so little, and Democrats make so little out of so much. Can you give examples of what you mean by that?

BM: We just lost $9 billion in Iraq. It's just gone. Where's the uproar over that? Whitewater was what, $100,000? That was a major scandal. And what was Travelgate? Hillary (Clinton) fired some staffers and it's a scandal? Clinton gets a haircut in an airplane on a runway and that was a scandal? Versus losing $9 billion in Iraq? Come on.

Clinton's brother, Roger Clinton, was a scandal, but you have Neil Bush, President Bush's brother, and the details of his divorce, which are laugh-out-loud funny. Neil Bush has Asian women knocking on his door and having sex with him, then leaving. He doesn't know if they are prostitutes, but they show up, have sex and leave. How does that happen? "They just had sex with me and left."

Right-wingers get red-faced screaming and upset, and left-wingers don't. That's the difference. One side has tolerance and understanding, and the other side has a lack of those. Liberals, who are tolerant people, don't go nuts when they hear this.

Sun: But the president has enormous appeal for millions of Americans. How do you explain that?

BM: A lot of it is all about how you frame an issue linguistically. When the president appears on TV he always has three words written behind him -- Making America Stronger, or something like that. It's quick and easy to understand. If Clinton had a banner saying, "Me No (Fornicate)," he would not have been in so much trouble.

We're doing a piece on Friday, if the Republicans win again then the Democrats need to get on the page that Republicans have been on forever, taking the estate tax and turning it into the death tax. In Social Security they turned private accounts, which people didn't like, into personal accounts. They say they are pro-life, so obviously the other guy is pro-death.

Sun: Your show is part of the trend that is the blend of entertainment and news, similar to "The Daily Show" and "Weekend Update" on "Saturday Night Live." Do you think viewers are actually forming opinions about public policy by watching your show?

BM: I hope I have the potential to change points of view. That's what I've always done. I don't take mainstream opinion and make jokes about it. I don't care about being booed. I feel sometimes if I don't get booed, I'm not telling the truth. Mine are not mainstream opinions, but I'd rather have 15 percent agree with me who are really there than be with the rest of the sheep.

Sun: Do you find it difficult to converse with or enjoy anyone from the right?

BM: How can I enjoy Ann Coulter (laughs)? But I do. I know her. We can go out for a drink and we don't talk about politics. She's one who doesn't back down, either, and raises a lot of issues. A lot of people don't like her for that, and I can relate to that.

Sun: You're particularly outspoken about the environment and made some startling comments about the tsunami on your season opener.

BM: Yeah, the tsunami was easy to understand -- big earthquake, big wave, supermodel is hurt -- but there are disasters going on slowly, less dramatically, in the environment all the time. We only pay attention when they are big and tragic and easily understood.

Sun: But doesn't throwing the supermodel reference into that argument detract from the point?

BM: In a perfect world I would be able to just make the point, but I think if you don't make it entertaining, and don't get the laugh, nobody's going to listen.

Sun: So maybe what the Social Security debate needs is a supermodel?

BM: (Laughs) Right. We need one of the "Desperate Housewives" to explain it to us.

Sun: What would be your dream matchup for the 2008 presidential election?

BM: Both sides have the two greatest warriors -- Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Clinton -- and neither of them can run. That's a real shame to me.

Sun: What are your thoughts about the Democratic Party's chances for revival?

BM: Well, I think the South is lost. It used to be the reverse -- the Solid South used to mean the Democratic South -- and the Republicans still won their share of elections. But the Democrats have to fish in a different pool, they can't expect to poach Republican voters and have them switch over. I guess Hillary is the top candidate, and that's not the best thing even though I do like her. She's a centrist, moving even closer to the center, and doing the same dance that (Al) Gore and (John) Kerry tried. I am expecting Hillary Clinton to go out wearing a duck-hunting outfit any day now.

But there is a whole America being ignored, and if Democrats think they can poach Republican voters they've been taking more Oxycontin than Rush Limbaugh.

Sun: What type of show can we expect Saturday at the House of Blues?

BM: People who watch the (HBO) show and ("Politically Incorrect") will certainly not be disappointed. I won't be with Cirque du Soleil and won't have backup singers. I love doing stand-up now. It took me 20-something years of doing it and I'd never had a standing ovation. But now I do.

I don't switch it up on you. The material that I think you've come to expect is what you'll get. It's like, I want to go see some big action star caring for a baby in a movie. With me there are no surprises.